Lilo

Chef Eric Bost, who ran the kitchen at République in Los Angeles before returning to the coast, opened Lilo on Carlsbad's Roosevelt Street in 2025 and earned a Michelin star within six weeks. Sixteen or so courses move past a U-shaped, 22-seat counter that wraps the open kitchen. Guests start in a courtyard under a tree, then pass through a wall of glass into the dining room. The tasting runs through big-eye tuna and wagyu tartare with yuzu, spot prawns, roasted California squab, and a blackened banana dessert with Koshihikari rice and shiro miso caramel, built around Bost's Southern California coastal ingredients: kinmedai, Maine lobster, abalone.